Indian Moon Orbiter Fails Abruptly

India's Chandrayaan-1 is an Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) mission designed to orbit the Moon over a two year period. Packed with an international suite of science instruments, the orbiter is headed for a late 2007-2008 launch. ImageCredit: Dan Roam

BANGALORE, India ? India?s Chandrayaan-1
lunar orbiter mission, which launched last October, ended 14 months prematurely
Saturday after an abrupt malfunction, the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) said in a statement.

ISRO said
scientists abruptly lost radio contact with the nation's first
planetary probe, which was designed to operate for two years in orbit
around the Moon. ISRO spokesman S. Satish told Space News,SPACE.com?s
sister publication, onSaturday that attempts to reestablish contact had
failed and that the mission was as good as lost.

The
spacecraft, carrying a payload of 11 scientific instruments ? six
supplied by U.S. and European partners ? was orbiting at an altitude
of 124 miles (200 km) and could crash any time on the lunar surface,
he said. The end comes four months after the onboard star sensor for
determining Chandrayaan-1's orientation began
malfunctioning April 26, forcing controllers to activate a backup system to
keep the spacecraft's antenna pointed to the ground station near Bangalore.

The ISRO
release said the spacecraft had made more than 3,400 orbits around the Moon,
sent nearly
70,000 images, and that most of the scientific objectives of the mission
had been met. ISRO is collaborating with Russia on a follow-on Moon mission,
which will include a lander and rover and is slated for launch in 2012.